You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

1

Shadows of Yog Sothoth

Posted by
Judgetrev
,
23 January 2018
·
232 views

I have been running three players through this classic campaign for a good number of months now. We have been pretty good at getting together Monday nights online and playing for a couple hours.

TWO HOUR GAME LIMIT....
This actually works out so well for me as a keeper. The prep I have to do is so minimal. They can only get so far off track in two hours!

I do not discourage any tangent they want to go on, and I have a week to figure out a clever way to let them do what they want and still progress through the campaign.

Because of this I have dropped whole chapters from Shadows as written. Sometimes I skip something completely, other times I substitute a completely different published adventure.

I have done a lot of writing.

I have learned how to read a chapter of the campaign, strip out everything that doesn't matter, and focus on the main thing that does.

I have learned to set up set pieces that must happen, but leave them open ended enough so they can crop up whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I have learned how to gently herd the players to these set pieces and edit them on the fly.

I have learned how to use the NPCs as the main thing that drives my end of the story.

Once I read the scenario I figure out who the NPCs are, and what they are trying to achieve. I then contemplate how they plan on doing this. I try to plan for what my PCs most likely will do, predict possible outcomes, make a few notes and run with it.

I think Shadows of Yogsothoth is a fantastic campaign.

I do not think it flows well from chapter to chapter. I do not think the chapters really even relate to each other very much.

Some of it is even ridiculous I dare say.

BUT! I have learned so much about running this game through my efforts in trying to make Shadows work.

We have about three sessions until the end.

I would recommend this campaign to any Keeper out there. I have been having a great time with it, and so have my players.